The Senate passed, 96-0, late Wednesday a $2 trillion bill that provides cash payments to individuals and households, assistance to small businesses, corporate bailouts, enhanced unemployment benefits, money for hospitals, aid to state and local governments, and student provisions. Read the details [...]
Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
March 22nd, 2020 - 3:36 pm § in Economics
How to correctly interpret this “stock market crash”
When you buy stock, you become a part-owner of the company, but in practical terms you’re buying a share of the company’s future earnings. The market prices of shares continually fluctuate, and at any given time, they’re worth whatever investors are willing to pay for them. This is[...]
March 19th, 2020 - 9:22 pm § in Economics
$$$ McConnell’s Helicopter Money
How Much Will You Get ??? Right now, this is only a proposal, but if legislated in its present form, there would be a single payment of $1,200 for each adult plus $500 for each child for: Individual taxpayers whose adjusted gross income (AGI) on their 2018 tax return was $75,000 or less; Joint filer[...]
March 15th, 2020 - 3:19 pm § in Economics
BREAKING NEWS: The Fed acts to shore up economy
Rate cuts, QE, other actions are similar to 2008; stock futures drop, triggering trading halt Reacting to the coronavirus emergency, the Federal Reserve announced Sunday it’s cutting interest rates to zero, launching a $700 billion QE (quantitative easing) program, and cutting commercial banks[...]
March 9th, 2020 - 12:36 am § in Donald Trump, Economics
Oil prices collapse after Putin rejects production cuts and Saudi Arabia retaliates
Stocks plunge; Dow drops 2,013 points in Monday trading Oil prices plummeted over the weekend after Russia rejected OPEC-proposed production cuts, setting off an oil-price war with Saudi Arabia. Futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell below $28 on Sunday, and WTI settled at $30.99 in Mo[...]
Workers of the World Unite: Screw the Americans!
I wonder if the age of imperialistic capitalism is over? The industrial revolution but it was based on raw materials imported from poor colonies and turned into manufactured goods at relatively high wages for workers in the imperialist countries. Mills in England and New England would not have be[...]
Why I Do Not Feel the Glow from The Trump Sugar High
The sad fact is that the current stock market highs have little effect on most Americans because only a few percent of us actually benefit. Though millions of Americans own some stock through retirement programs, the effect of this ownership is diluted because the individuals lack the voting power a[...]
A Republican Asks Whether I Favor Bernie
Chris Vance, former chair of the Washington State Republican Party, is now a strong part of the anti Trump movement. Unfortunately, Chris sees our 2020 election as some sort of Manichean conflict between extreme rightism of Trump and extreme leftism of a faction of the Democrats. Chris asked me[...]
How Warren Can Win
I SEE WARREN AS VERY MUCH LIKE LINCOLN What she would bring to the job is life experience and immense intellect. Like Abe, Elizabeth grew up in poverty and made her own way. Like Abe she first became known as a lawyer. In his case the law was that of the frontier, in hers it […][...]